


Menagerie

by iselsis



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Brother Acquisition, Adoption, Damian Wayne is Nightwing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, Homelessness, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd Steals the Batmobile Tires, Jason Todd is Not Robin, Reverse Robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:15:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28245288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iselsis/pseuds/iselsis
Summary: Damian Wayne, Nightwing, tries to calm the little boy he caught stealing the tires off the Batmobile. Adopting the child would also be satisfactory.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Comments: 54
Kudos: 496
Collections: Jason Todd Steals the Batmobile Tires





	Menagerie

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have my fatigue meds rn, so writing something that connects to something else is too hard and this happened. Working on chapter two for Beat Him to It, though.  
> Edit: Y'all are so sweet, but you don't have to worry about me, I just can't think very hard and resting won't really help much. Writing is cheaper than therapy, too, so I'm not hurting my mental health or anything. I love writing.

“I mean you no harm, child,” Damian said quietly, crouching to make himself a less threatening figure and holding a hand out toward the trembling figure in the corner.

The little boy evidentially did not believe him and pressed himself further against the ragged brick wall, clutching his tire iron—a puny defense, but sound in the absence of a better weapon—tighter to his chest.

Damian watched him carefully, assessing his options.

To directly approach the boy would cause him to panic. Already, his chest flitted rapidly and his eyes were wide with terror at having been caught stealing _from_ Batman _by_ Nightwing. Damian’s reputation from his earlier days had followed him, a fact which he’d had a great part in egging on. No doubt the boy had heard that Nightwing was Batman’s assassin who took great joy in the torture and murder of criminals. And the boy, however understandable his act of thievery had been, judging by his hollowed cheeks and clothes hanging like drapes from his too-thin body, was a criminal.

“I-I’ll put them back,” the boy stammered breathlessly.

Damian tilted his head, realizing that he’d been silent for too long. Jon had let him know that, outside of his own family, people considered long silences and intense staring to be intimidating. The problem was that Damian did not quite know what to say.

He would much rather reattach the tires he was trusting his life to himself, rather than have the emaciated child do it, and if he took the child’s deal, it would mean accepting the implicit plea—once the tires were returned, the boy would be free to go.

That simply would not do because the boy was his now. If his father could bring home _Drake_ and tolerate Damian’s growing menagerie, surely he would not object to this addition to their household. Even if he did, it was a moot point. If they didn’t take him in, the boy would no doubt be dead within the month, and his father would at the very least let the boy stay with them while he tried to find him a safe home.

“I will put them back,” Damian said at last.

The boy’s face crumpled, and he glanced quickly out to both sides like he was looking for an escape route that wasn’t there before latching back onto Damian. The light from the nearby streetlamp glistened on the tears welling in those big blue eyes.

“What is your name?” Damian asked to cut off the tears before they could fall. Emotionally compromised civilians had never been his area of expertise or comfort.

“I-I-“ The boy cut off with a frightened whimper, and he clenched his eyes against the tears to Damian’s relief.

At least he seemed to agree with Damian that crying was of the devil. “I will compensate you for the information.”

The boy needed food. Damian could bribe him with a meal for his name, and they _would_ be giving the boy hundreds and thousands of meals in the years to come.

The boy’s eyes flew open and he stared at Damian with his face screwed up like he might not have heard him right, so Damian repeated himself more slowly, “I will compensate you if you will tell me your name.”

“C-compensate?” the boy asked, biting down hard on his small lower lip.

Damian nodded. “I’ll reward you. Pay you.”

The briefest of scowls flitted across the boy’s face before he could remember that he was frightened of Damian. “I know what compensate means.”

Damian smiled at the glimpse of the true child beneath that rough exterior. Snarky. Reckless, perhaps, but brave to have attempted to steal from the Bats, and smart enough to realize how much someone would pay for something stolen from Batman himself. The gamble, had it gone the boy’s way, would have surely given him enough money to buy himself a food and a warm coat and shoes.

He would be fine addition to their family, perhaps even to their team of fighters once he was old enough.

“Will you tell me your name, then?”

The boy hesitated, scuffing the toe of a sneaker held together with duct tape and prayers against the cement, then dropped his head and slightly lowered his tire iron. “’m Jason.”

Damian smiled. Jason, the deposed king from Greek mythology. A fitting name for a boy about to become a prince of Gotham.

“Well, Jason, I have one more question for you.”

Jason raised his head and eyed him warily. “What’s that?”

“Are you hungry?”

**Author's Note:**

> So, I know that normally people have Damian be a jerk in Reverse Robins fics because he never got Dick, but I'm going with him being nice (here at least) because:  
> 1\. Bruce had to figure stuff out because he couldn't rely on Dick, and he at least kind of got his crap together.  
> 2\. The Superfamily helped him out with retraining Damian, thus Damian being Nightwing.  
> \- As a random side note, idk why people give Damian Arabic vigilante names, because only .9 percent of the entire population of New Jersey is Arabic, and if Batman got a sidekick with an Arabic name just as Bruce Wayne got an Arabic son, I feel like Tim Drake would not be the only one to pick up on that.  
> 3\. Bruce relied heavily on animal therapy, so Damian has many more animals than in canon.


End file.
